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Re: Mean Age of RN\'s

...hemorroidectomy patients stayed a week inpatient.
...doctors would send<font color="purple">Text</font> their patients in to a private room for a week for "rest".
...patients would be admitted the night before surgery for a shave and an enema.
...glass thermometers soaking in alcohol at the bedside for each patient.
...the only special bed on the ward was a circle-electric bed.
...we used to call our units "the ward".
...the patient bathrooms were out in the hallway and not in the patient rooms.
...color coded little medication cards.
...we mixed all our own IV's in bottles.
...we gave all our antibiotics by IM injection in the buttocks for weeks on end until we couldn't find a soft spot to put them in and half the time the solution would spit back out at you, and their hips were so sore and hard and bruised. (Thank God for IVP meds now!!!)
...families never stayed overnight with the patients and visiting hours we strictly enforced. (wholistic care was not a priority then).
...we cleaned, sharpened and sterilized needles on the ward and reused them over and over again.

Re: Mean Age of RN\'s

I am 64 and planning to retire when I am supposed to- next year at 65 1/2. I think our unit has about national average age wwith most of our nurses 40's to 50's and a few 30's and maybe 2 in their 20's. Most of our group has worked there for 10-30 years,including supervisers and we get along well with little back-biting. We try to support one another and trade hours etc as needed to make life better for all.
As for I remember when--I,too know how to count drops so the IV will run at prescribed rate. Also remember wearing those hats which I loved at the time (it proved that I was a real nurse!) I learned lots of tricks from older staff,including nurse aides.

Re: Mean Age of RN\'s

I'm 47, have been an RN for 27 years and still love it!! Obtained my CCRN 12 years ago. Got my BSN 2 years ago and am currently working on my Masters/NP. Am I nuts to do this at my age?! Maybe, but I'm not getting older, just better!!

Re: Mean Age of RN\'s

This is much more than you asked for, but I got on a roll!
I just turned 56. My first hospital experience was in a state supported facility in Massachusetts that harkened back to the 1800’s! To prepare a soap suds enema you had to fill a metal enema can with warm water then place a bar of soap in a metal mesh device with a handle ..to make the soap suds you had to pump the device up and down until it was sufficiently soapy…gad, those were the ‘old’ days!
I think *redrosegal* and I worked in the same place! All of her memories are very familiar.
And, *Tst3*, I remember those pleurevac bottles very well!
I also remember---
… non-electric beds---all patient beds were secure in the high position. Hoyer lifts were regularly used
…..wooden wheelchairs
…no blue pads\chux-- we used rubber draw sheets under the regular draw sheet (remember draw sheets?)
….IPPBRx given with the use of the large green O2 tank (nurses gave all respiratory treatments)
… multi dose vials of Demerol, Morphine etc open on the shelf along with large bottles of Librium, Valium, Codiene, Percodan etc
….dishing out meals from the food cart (actually dishing out food! You really HAD to know your nutrition in those days!)
…..if your patient died it was your responsibility to prepare the body; take him\her to the morgue, then go to the morgue to clean the body after the post mortem! (I hated that!)
…..sometimes You were the only nurse on the floor 11PM-7AM which could be a 35 bed male surgical floor &lt;those were the days of patient gender segregation&gt;
…..cardiac monitors wheeled into the hallway so that the nurse could ‘keep an eye’ on her patients
…Blakemore tubes being tractioned with tea cups
…..Scope rooms in L&amp;D (scopolamine medicated maternity patients medicated with this during transition! I worked with this during my L&amp;D rotation in nursing school and never worked L&amp;D again!)
…..’Carbolizing your unit’---cleaning the patients ‘room’ after discharge-it was the nurses responsibility to disinfect the unit and prepare it for the new admission. This included cleaning the metal bed (the whole bed!) Also, cleaning and disinfecting the metal bedpan and metal urinal; soap dish and what ever else had been used by the patient
…cleaning the wheels of the treatment carts with ether (I don’t remember why we had to do that)
….I, too, remember throwing the metal bedpan to get attention during an emergency
….writing narrative nursing notes
…..cataract patients were on strict bedrest and sandbagged (to prevent movement of their head)for days!
….IV cutdowns were routine
…..IV bottles were all glass
…..Syringes were all glass-- I, also, remember cleaning, sharpening and sterilizing needles for reuse
…..Units\wards dedicated to TB patients
…..standing up when the doctor came to the desk
…..being ‘called on the carpet’ for having a run in my white stockings .. having to wear my white nurses cap on my head; only white Clinic shoes on my feet and a full white nurses uniform which had to come below the knees!—no pants or skirts! Heaven forbid! Your hair had to be off your collar; you couldn’t have long nails or wear nailpolish, rings, bracelets or necklaces and never any perfume! Although, we could smoke at the nurses station &lt;go figure&gt;
…..the days before the hospital wide page system, if you needed your supervisor you had to call each floor looking for her..if you had an emergency: tough luck
…..the days before air conditioning on the floors
….the days when you could open the windows in each room

Thank you for posting the query about the old days of nursing. It has been fun remembering. I only worked in that 'ancient' hospital for about 18 months, but it has held a lasting impression all these years. As bad as those days were there was always time to hold a patient's hand and listen to their concerns...
Carol